Some gays oppose bill to prohibit bias on job

From New York to Seattle, gays are divided over a workplace protection bill in Congress, not because of whom it covers but because of whom it leaves out: transgender people.

At a rally on Seattle's Capitol Hill today, gay-rights activists will join a nationwide call for defeat of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, which would ban discrimination in the workplace against people who are gay.

This is huge for the gay community, which has waited nearly 30 years to reach this point. And when U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., first introduced the measure earlier this year, it included protections for the entire community — lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

But in recent weeks, Frank, who is gay, told the LGBT community that he needed to strip gender identity from the measure, essentially excluding transgender people, because with them he didn't have the votes to win passage in the House of Representatives.

"What I have learned in the past month was that we weren't yet at the point where we could wish away this prejudice" against transgender people, Frank said in a speech before Congress last week.

"We can say, until we are able to do everything we are going to abandon this effort... " he said. "Or we can take one of the biggest steps forward in the anti-discrimination march... "

ENDA is largely symbolic — it lacks the votes needed to pass the Senate, and President Bush is unlikely to sign it. But the exclusion of transgender people from workplace protection has sparked division and fierce debate among gays across the country.

Some say the gay community cannot abandon its own, while others argue that an all-or-nothing position helps no one at all.

Gay bloggers have weighed in: Some questioned whether transgender people have enough in common with lesbians and gays, only to find themselves skewered by other bloggers for their selfishness.

More than 270 gay-rights organizations — including several in Seattle and across Washington state — oppose the bill and say they will work to see it fail.

Locally, they've scheduled a unity rally for 2 p.m. today at the LGBT Community Center, 1115 E. Pike St.

"We'd rather have the bill fail than leave anyone behind," said Bill Dubay, a longtime Seattle gay-rights activist. "We can be frozen here for a while; we're not going backward."

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest gay lobbying group, says that while it supports protections for everyone, including transgender people, it won't work to defeat a measure that excludes them.

"We don't think we gain anything by opposing the bill," said John Linder, Seattle-based representative for the HRC.

It's been three decades since the first bill was introduced in Congress to do for gays and lesbians what various civil-rights bills have done for African Americans, women and others. It went nowhere.

In the ensuing years, several states — including Washington — have passed measures protecting gays from discrimination in many areas, including employment. But in 31 states, employers can still fire a person for being gay, and 39 states offer no protection for gender identity.

While transgender people have been working alongside gays for more than 30 years, the visibility of their struggle is much newer.

Americans — including some gays — are less familiar with the issues facing transgender people, who say they are vulnerable to being fired — or not hired at all.

Barbara Sehr, co-chair of the Ingersoll Committee, a transgender advocacy group spearheading today's rally, said a key issue for the community is lack of visibility.

"A lot of people know a gay person — a neighbor, a co-worker; they know what they are like," Sehr said. "A lot of people have never met a trans person."

Sehr is not encouraged that the U.S. House will take up a separate bill covering gender identity and expression after the vote on this one.

"Our community tends to be so small, the chance of ever getting a separate non-discrimination bill for transgender people is very unlikely," she said.

Julie Shapiro, associate professor of law at Seattle University and a legal expert on gay-rights issues, said in standing by transgender people, the gay community is doing the right thing.

"You don't sell your friends down the river because it's politically expedient," she said.

But on the streets of Seattle's Capitol Hill Friday, opinions were divided.

Jonathan Verd, 37, said that while he agrees everyone should be included, "we also wouldn't want to take a step back. We need to build on the momentum we have now. It's just a matter of time before transgender people are included, too."

At Espresso Vivace Sidewalk Bar on Capitol Hill, two friends who declined to give their names disagreed on what the community should do.

"You don't need the whole cake if a few pieces would be OK," said one, a physician.

"It would be nice to have everyone included, but to deny these rights to all of us, for the benefit of a few, I'm not sure that's progress or simply holding us where we are."

His friend countered: "But we capitulate on so many things — civil unions over gay marriage; 'don't ask, don't tell,' " he said, referring to the policy against gays serving openly in the military.

"If we start to unravel now, we lose the war as a whole."

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com